1 Thessalonians 2:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see that this is not vainglory? "But God," he says, "Who tests our hearts." We do nothing, he says, to please men. And why would we do anything of that kind?

Having thus praised himself with the words, "not as wishing to please men," or seeking honor from men, the Apostle continues: "But as God counted us worthy to be entrusted with the Gospel."

If God did not know, he says as it were, that we have utterly renounced everything worldly, He would not have chosen us. As He tested us, so we remain.

"Who tests," he says, "our hearts." That is, God tested us and entrusted the preaching of the Gospel to us. Therefore, as we proved blameless before God, so we remain.

"But as God counted us worthy to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak." God, he says, counted us worthy and chose us to entrust the Gospel to us. He would not have chosen us if He had not recognized us as worthy.

Therefore we remain as worthy as we were when we were chosen by Him for so great a preaching.

"Not pleasing men, but God, Who tests (δοκιμάζοντι) our hearts." That is, we do all this not in order to please you, but desiring to please God, Who tests hidden things. For δοκιμάζειν now means this.

Or it is because He comprehends hearts and gives crowns. No deceiver, crafty and impious man can please Him.

The good Teacher instructed us through His Apostle that we should live righteously and act righteously not for the praise of men. That is, we must not make the praise of men the goal of our righteousness.

Yet we should seek it for their own sake. For when the righteous are praised, the benefit is not for those who are praised, but for those who praise them.

As for the former, it is enough for them that they are righteous. But the latter, for whom it is useful to imitate the righteous, must rejoice that the righteous receive praise from them.

In this way they show that those who receive sincere praise from them are dear to them. Thus the Apostle says in one place: "If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ" (Gal 1:10).

In another place he says: "As I also please all men in all things," and he gives the reason: "not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved" (1 Cor 10:33).

But as we were chosen and tested by God, so that nothing listed here was found in us and the Gospel might be entrusted to us, so we speak in holiness and truth. We do not speak to please you or other men, but God, who tests together with the words the hearts of those who speak.

We did not appoint ourselves teachers, but the Gospel was entrusted to us by God. Therefore we both speak and do all things as before God as witness, for we know that no movement of the soul is hidden from Him. The words, “as we were approved by God,” mean: since it was pleasing to God, and He judged us worthy to be entrusted.

Through prayer to God I have received what I long begged for: to see your faces, worthy of God. Bound for Christ, I hope to kiss you, if God's will counts me worthy to reach the end.

The beginning has been made well. But shall I be granted grace to receive my lot without hindrance? For I fear your love, lest it harm me. It is easy for you to do what you desire, but hard for me to reach God if you spare me.

I desire that you please not men, but God, as indeed you are well-pleasing to Him. For I shall no longer have such a convenient occasion to reach God, nor will you have one to mark yourselves by a better work, if you keep silence.

If you keep silence concerning me, I shall be God's. But if you show love to my flesh, I shall have to enter the course again.

“As we were approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel.” With firm assurance the Apostle testifies that he did not take the Apostleship upon himself on his own authority, but was chosen for it by God Himself. This election was accompanied by such trials as could assure everyone that Paul was worthy to be a preacher of the Gospel. “Not as pleasing men, but God.” The first mark of the Apostle’s preaching is the absence of man-pleasing. The Apostle could boldly say that he preached without flattery.

b) The Apostle's manner of acting among the Thessalonians was as fearless and direct as it was tender and quiet. "Having previously suffered and been shamefully treated in Philippi," the Apostle writes, "we were bold in our God to preach to you the Gospel of God with great struggle."

"We never had before you words of flattery, ... nor a pretext for greed. ... We might have appeared with weight, as Apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, as a nurse tenderly cares for her own children."

"Working night and day, so that we might not burden any of you, we ... exhorted, encouraged, and implored each one of you, as a father does his children, to walk worthily of God" (1 Thess 2:2, 5, 7, 9, 11-12).

Refuting every possible attack on his preaching, the Apostle speaks of the purity of Christian teaching and the holiness of its motives. They proceed wholly from the desire to please God, Who called him to the Gospel.

According to the explanation of the ancient commentators, the expressions "not from deception, nor from impurity, nor in guile" define the source of fearless and self-sacrificing evangelization from the negative side.

By the expression "not from deception," the Apostle meant that its source was not unconscious delusion arising from self-deception or from being carried away by the errors of others (cf. Rom 1:27; Eph 4:14).

By "nor from impurity," he meant that this source was not an impure supernatural power (cf. Lk 4:33; Mk 3:11; 5:18; 9:25; Acts 8:7; Rev 18:2).

No, his preaching is not the product of any self-deception, nor is it caused by any impure motives, such as greed. Likewise, its spread is not accomplished by any evil means, έν δόλω.

The Apostle acts in accordance with his high calling (vv. 3-4). The Thessalonians had full opportunity to be convinced for themselves that he never wished to flatter them.

As for greed, from which various teachers of religion so often suffered, the Apostle calls God as witness that he said nothing to the Thessalonians as though he wished to receive money from them, έν προφάαει πλεονεξίας.

The Apostle seeks neither earthly nor human glory, whether from the Thessalonians or from others who might praise him for the conversion of the Thessalonians.

"We were approved," δεδοκιμασμεθα. Δοκιμαζειν means to test, to learn by experience, to examine (1 Thess 5:1; 1 Tim 3:10). Then, as a result of testing, it means to recognize as fit or capable for something, and therefore to choose for some work (1 Cor 16:3).

In general it can mean to deem worthy or count worthy. Men test and, after testing, choose. God has no need of testing, as Chrysostom says. He simply sees.

Therefore the Apostle says here: God saw, or recognized, us as fit, as though He had approved our fitness, good experience, and faithfulness, in order to entrust us with the Gospel.